Kiké rides tall in Rose Parade

The Dodgers partner with the City of Hope on annual “Think Cure” cancer research fundraisers. As the Hernandez family scrambled to learn the options for treating multiple myeloma, the Dodgers put Enrique in touch with Forman, a renowned oncologist who previously had worked with executives and employees referred by the team.

The Kiké Hernandez story for 2017 was one of redemption. 2016 was a lost year for the utility player as he was unable to compete mentally with major league baseball in 2016 after learning about his father’s battle with Multiple myeloma a cancer of the bone marrow. For fans, they just saw a player struggling and looked at the metrics and concluded that Herandez simply wasn’t very good discounting the outstanding season he had with the Dodgers in 2015.

Headed into 2017, Hernandez had to win a job and the competition was fierce as Chris Taylor had come out of nowhere to wow the Dodger staff in spring training. Charlie Culberson was also in the picture but eventually, both of them were sent to AAA and Hernandez had won the coveted utility role because he could play both infield and outfield.

Now that his father was in remission, Hernandez turned his full attention to baseball and was a valuable player for the Dodgers during the regular season. Showing off his versatility, Hernandez played all over the diamond with 34 games in CF, 28 games in LF, 24 games at Shortstop, 18 games in RF, 14 games at 3rd base, 9 games at 2nd base, and even 3 games at 1st base. He did all this while putting up an outstanding .946 OPS against LHP.

As we head into 2018 we can probably count on Kiké to be the right-handed platoon partner for whoever wins the left job against right-hand pitching. I think we can also count on him to clobber them and give the Dodgers more heroics in 2018.

7 Comments

My mother-in-law survived thirteen years with this disease after being diagnosed with it in 1988
Very little was known about this disease at that time. Her oncologist just told her to get her affairs in order, telling her she had about eighteen months to live. Her daughter was frantic hearing this news. I insisted she take her mom for a second opinion regarding treatment.

They did find a doctor who put her on interferon. Interferon is a substance the body makes.
It can only be administered for six months, after that it becomes toxic. They decided to give it a try as a stop gap. The doctor said new treatments were being developed at Stanford.
So she rode the wave of new treatment after new treatment for about eleven years.
A real estate agent, she was able to perform at a high level during this time. She was not a candidate for a bone marrow transplant because she was a smoker who wouldn’t the habit.

The bone marrow transplant is no joke.
Chemo is given to the patient with the aim of killing all of the small cells in the body.
Then the bone marrow is taken from a healthy family member who is a good match and given to the patient, hoping it takes. It is great when it works.

Robert’s doctor said this would be his treatment of last resort.
Listening to the doctor describe the process reminded me of the song “One Way Out” by the Allman Brothers.
Thankfully, this door remained unopened.

So yeah, a son who loves a father undergoing such an ordeal could find it more difficult trying to track a MLB fastball.

Things seem to be working out for Enrique Hernandez’ father and Enrique was able to put it back in gear on the baseball field.

One of my best friends donated blood marrow, it is an extremely painful procedure as they core out the bone marrow without any anesthesia. I remember looking into liver transplants when Zack was going through his ordeal and I think they do the same thing. Cut out a small piece without anesthesia. I should recheck, don’t want to spread false info.

For the bone marrow extraction a really big gauged needle is pushed through the bone until access is gained on the marrow. This is the one where they dont need too much. They remove it, treat it and then put it onto the patient’s marrow, again using the big needle.